Monday, February 15, 2010

Hillary and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Foreign Policy Day(s)

In a way, you can’t blame her for her haplessness, secretarially speaking. Her own experience with matters foreign—being “shot at” by Bosnian “snipers,” for one, or, for another, kissing Suha Arafat while Mrs. Arafat’s blood-soaked husband was shoveling the untold millions he’d stolen from his miserable flock into Swiss bank accounts—has been somewhat . . . insubstantial. And in any case, she’s not exactly in charge. The Obamic foreign policy, such as it is, seems to be being formulated and conducted as much (maybe more?) from the West Wing as from Foggy Bottom, and by people even less familiar with the issues than she, who’ve done almost nothing in their lives but run political campaigns—and that’s in Chicago, where a little cold hard cash and some cold stiff bodies voting at graveyard polling stations can get anyone elected—and who are still in essence running a campaign today, though they call it a presidency.

But really. Wouldn’t she be better off saying nothing at all than repeating (at a “Townterview With Al Jazeera”—eeeek!) drivel like this:

I am hopeful that this year we will see the commencement of serious negotiations that will cover every issue that is outstanding. Obviously, those are the ones that have to be decided between the parties; no one can dictate to either the Israelis or the Palestinians what the outcome should be. They must make those decisions themselves. But the United States is very focused on being a facilitator and a help in every way possible to achieve that outcome. And we are working hard on it, we are working hard on it every day. And we hope that we will see the kind of break-through this year that everyone is anticipating.

As if those same negotiations haven’t been commenced a thousand times and shepherded to total failure by a host of peace-drunk U.S. presidents (including her husband), secretaries of state, and envoys, pressuring one Israeli prime minister after another to make concessions—impossible and intolerable concessions—to a bunch of Palestinian terrorists-turned-“statesmen”?

Or this:

I can only tell you what so many leaders tell me, which is that they worry about Iran's intentions. They worry about whether Iran will be a good neighbor, and will live peacefully. . . . And the question is, what can Iran do in order to allay the worries and the fears of their neighbors? And that is what we are trying to encourage Iran to consider. And yet, I don't see much progress there, to be honest. I just wish that we could tell you that there was more progress.

Why does she think those leaders are telling her their tales of woe? It’s not because they want to bask in the comfort of her motherly embrace (though it is said by people who work for her that she takes care of her own). It’s because they still hope against hope, despite much evidence to the contrary, that her boss will stand up at last and take the mullahs down—and their Hizballah and Hamas and al Qaeda proxies along with them.

Or, worst of all—and most devastatingly revealing of Mr. Obama’s worthlessness and her own inadequacy, this:

And I don't know whether the reaction that the Iranian Government had to the election, and now the opposition trying to express itself -- which we fully support their right to do so -- has made the Iranian Government even, you know, more unwilling to open up and talk with their friends and their neighbors about how to prevent the concerns from escalating. I wish that Iran would take a different approach. The United States, under President Obama, would really welcome a positive, normal relationship with Iran. But you can't do that unless there is something coming back to you. And there hasn't been. So, I wish that we could be having a town hall in Tehran. I wish that we could be having this conversation with members of the opposition and members of the government, and students from all points of view. But we are not. . . . So, our challenge is, how do we try to influence Iran to be a good neighbor and to treat its own people fairly and decently? And anyone who has answers to those questions, I really would love to hear them.

“Anyone who has answers to those questions, I really would love to hear them.” It would be laughable if it weren’t so pathetically scary.